Smashing time for old rivals

With two of cricket's greatest rivals going head to head today, the focus is on how England can carry the expectations of a nation when they take on Australia in a Twenty20 contest in Hampshire ahead of the Ashes series.

First the bad news. There will be no hot tub, no bouncy castles, no bouncy Natasha Bedingfield, no Wild West rodeos nor mascot races between Roary the Lion and Lanky the Giraffe. Neither will Mr Glenn McGrath be miked-up for us to hear his badinage with Mr Botham in the commentary box or his gentle words of encouragement for the batsmen.

The good news, though, is that, even shorn of some of its all-singing, all-dancing sideshow attractions, we can still concentrate all our energies on savouring a cricket revolution tonight when the mustiest and mightiest rivalry in the game bumps into the thoroughly modern phenomenon that is Twenty20.

Remember the Ashes? Well, take a deep breath and welcome what the Aussies have already dubbed "Smashes and Bashes".

If the hardiest traditionalists haven't already surrendered, they should be hoisting the white hankies by the time Michael Vaughan either leads his men out on to the field or towards the perspex dug-out at Southampton's Rose Bowl this evening, with a sell-out 15,000 straining to make themselves heard above a blaring loudspeaker rendition of Eminem's Lose Yourself.

For they must recognise that, love or hate it, there's no way of halting the rise of this noisy, stunted offspring of one-day internationals. Twenty20 is perfectly in tune with its age. A three-hour slugfest for a generation with a short attention span, or a tasty bite-sized supper for cricket lovers who can't afford a day off ? Either way, its triumphant two-year march makes it look unstoppable.

This year, it's gone global with Australia hammering New Zealand in the inaugural 20-over international in Auckland. It was a success but, with Kiwi players in retro-1980s beige uniforms and indulging in a moustachegrowing competition, no one appeared to take it seriously.

What looks set to give the experiment rather more legitimacy tonight is that both teams so evidently see the fixture as a way of setting the tone for the umpteen battles to come this summer. "It's England versus Australia. It's important," as Ponting said.

Which is why the England and Wales Cricket Board haven't bothered with any of the beyond-theboundary distractions that counties introduced so enterprisingly to woo the Twenty20 crowds. Who needs live music when you've got a double act like Pietersen and Lee? Hampshire have installed and sold an extra 5,000 seats for this and could easily have shifted 5,000 more.

There's no doubt that Twenty20 frames cricket as showbusiness like never before. David Clarke, the ECB's events manager, wouldn't normally have to work with a specialist production company just to make sure the loudspeaker accompaniment to the game is in order.

Yet still he explains why some of the more revolutionary aspects have no place tonight. "It's about keeping the integrity of international cricket," he said. It's also about showing that Twenty20 is actually compelling enough to sell itself without the gimmicks.

Crowds love it, players enjoy it, you can have two, even three, games in a day - today's match will have a Hampshire v PCA Masters XI curtain-raiser - to ease congested fixture lists and there's an ever-growing band who believe this leaner, tighter version of the one-day waltz is superior to the familiar 50-over dance.

It is winning converts by the game. "I thought it was an absolute joke when I first heard but from the first time I saw it, I was absolutely hooked," Mark Butcher told me earlier this year.

"The game itself is probably the most technical and tactical form of cricket there is. Every ball counts. Far from it being hit and hope, you have to think your way through it." Could it old rivals eventually replace the 50-over game completely? No, says Clarke, who believes Twenty20's popularity will only increase the interest in the 50-over and Test format. Butcher's not so sure.

"Would you see a problem if it killed off the 50-over game?" he said. "I think 50-over cricket is the most boring game in the universe. Maybe it has a bit of tradition behind it now but you get huge swathes of the game in the middle of an innings where absolutely nothing is happening but rubbish cricket.

Put that beside a 20-over game where there is hardly a ball bowled which isn't of some significance."

Twenty20 is a batsman's game but Darren Gough loves it. "We'll start off with one a series and people will say, 'There's money to be made here', so we'll have two or three. And then five. Eventually I can see they'll cut down on 50-over games and we'll have more Twenty20s."

The theory is that the health of Test cricket will only grow on the back of the upstart's progress, yet might we just be creating a new diet of fast-food cricket that could remove traditional dishes from the menu?

Editor Matthew Engel noted splendidly in last year's Wisden: "Actually, Twenty20 went on a bit too long for my own taste. I shall try to hang on for Ten10 or maybe Five5." Now there's a thought - from five days to five overs.